Thursday evening
was a mixed repertory program, and the “mixed” ended up being true of
both the performances and the repertoire. The dancing shined spectacularly
in some parts of the program, and went up and down in others.

George Balanchine’s “Allegro Brillante” opened the program; Vanessa Zahorian
and Zachary Hench danced the principal couple. The program notes that
there is motion flowing throughout the piece; well, they were moving, yes,
but there wasn’t very much excitement in all that movement. It looked
more like they were just going through the motions Thursday night, and
while Zahorian and Hench impressed technically in parts, the performance
could have used more punch.

Case in point: the
piano cadenza in the middle of the piece that is used as a solo for the
principal ballerina was danced competently by Zahorian, but it seemed
to be lacking the attack it needs in order to be truly be thrilling. The
Balanchine choreography for the corps and principals, in the way it weaves
around the stage and plays with the music, was there in all its “classic”-status
form, but the spirit of it was lacking. Matters didn’t help in the pit,
however. Andrew Mogrelia conducted the orchestra competently, but pianist
Roy Bogas gave a rather lifeless playing of the piano part, the heart
and soul of any piano concerto, not just the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto
No. 3 that Balanchine chose for “Brillante.”

From the moment the curtain lifted on “Concerto Grosso,” one could tell
that things were going to be much different – in a good way. There was
an immediate sense of energy from the five men dancing the piece – Pascal
Molat as the principal, with Garrett Anderson, Jaime Garcia Castilla,
Rory Hohenstein and Hansuke Yamamoto. The choreography is very athletic
and virtuosic, and the five men lived up to its challenges, especially
Pascal Molat, who impressed with spectacular, high jumps. The choreography
was a fantastic match with the Baroque-flavored concerto that Tomasson
chose to accompany the piece. Even though it was choreographed principally
as a gala showpiece, and the constant appearance of technical tricks certain
does make it more of a show piece than a super-serious contemporary ballet,
“Concerto Grosso” holds its own with Tomasson’s intelligent use of the
music and the charisma of the five men dancing the piece.

Christopher Wheeldon’s “Polyphonia” was really intriguing exploration
of very modern sounding piano music by Gyorgy Ligeti. The opening piece,
“Dosordre” from “Etudes pour piano, primier livre,” sounds like it would
be undanceable. But Wheeldon uses a good approach to it with his choreography,
with each of the four couples doing separate, assertive movements stepping
down stage to complement the assertiveness of the piano piece. I’ll need
to see the piece another time to really feel its full effect, but what
I saw Thursday night I liked. The Ligeti score is pretty complex, and
Wheeldon mines it well, with interesting solos and some really wild partnering.
There were great performances all around from the eight dancers in the
piece – Katita Waldo, Yuri Possokhov, Lorena Feijoo, Gonzalo Garcia, Julie
Diana, Ruben Martin, Kristin Long and Guennadi Nedviguine. They appeared
to take the piece more seriously and were more interested in dancing it
than the company performing “Allegro Brillante.” That attitude comes right
through, and there is a certain intensity that comes with dancing it.

The evening concluded with what I felt was an overall charming but mixed
performance of “Elite Syncopations.” It didn’t seem as bouncy as it should
have been, what with the loud costumes and the Joplin music. But it was
ultimately very charming, especially in some of the solos and pas de deux.
The highlight was Muriel Maffre and James Sofranko as a very tall woman
and a shorter man dancing a comic duet that involved many jokes about
her being much taller. It was like a woman being taken to the dance floor
by a little boy – a very cute piece that also involved some complex partnering
as well. Katita Waldo was on fire in James Scott’s “Calliope Rag” and Julie
Diana was an impressive presence all in white. Otherwise, however, in
the large group dances, there appeared to be some sense of quietness,
for lack of a better word, in the air; there needed to be a bit more “oomph”
in the proceedings to make the whole thing much more exciting. A charming
piece, though, and the audience especially liked Maffre and Sofranko’s
duet.

I’m going back to see this program again principally to see “Polyphonia.”
I’ve only seen two Wheeldon pieces so far (the first being “Mesmerics”
this past weekend with George Piper Dances), and I respond to it very
well. I have to admit, though, that I’m not as exposed to much of the
work that many of his critics say he draws heavily from, so I can’t comment
on that. I like what I see, though, and I look forward to x2 of “Polyphonia.”